Ask Lemmy

Speaking as a white person of mostly Italian-American ancestry in my late 40s from New York, USA.

My mother and father were always called "Mom" and "Dad." They divorced, my dad remarried first, and my stepmother has always been called by her first name; my sister and I were never asked to call her "Mom," and it would have been very weird for anyone to ask us to do so when we already had a mom who wasn't her. When my mother remarried, he was an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country and we briefly fell into calling our stepfather "Papi" which is Spanish for "Dad." That was a little weird, though, and we went back to using his first name.

The cliche' you mention from Western TV and films of a child calling a mother or father by their first name is often a standard joke about the kid acting rebellious and rejecting their parents' authority, and usually is depicted as a brief goofy phase which passes by the end of the episode, and not meant to depict a realistic ongoing relationship between parent and child. Alternatively, it could be illustrating a more nontraditional "hippie" family culture as noted by some others in these replies.

As for uncles and aunts, calling them "Uncle (name)" or "Aunt/Auntie (name)" is generally the norm in many Western cultures. I generally call my own "Uncle/Aunt (name)." However, it does very much vary.

Sometimes the formal "Aunt/Uncle" address is more of a thing for children, and when one reaches adulthood they might drop the "uncle" or "aunt" title and just use first names as their relationship transitions from one between a child and adult to a more equal dynamic between adults.

In some families the dynamic may even be different for individual aunts or uncles depending on how close the family relationship is; if it's a family member who lives nearby and you see all the time and have a very close personal relationship with, or if it's a distant relative you may only meet in person and communicate with rarely over the course of years, one may find the individual relationship (and, consequently, the form of address) develops differently with that family member. I call my close aunts and uncles who are regular presences in my life "Aunt/Uncle (name)," but if I encountered a distant relative from far away who I haven't seen or spoken with in 30 years I'd probably just use their first name.

Also, in some families "Uncle" or "Aunt/Auntie" can be a form of respectful address for older adults even if they are not family relations. In my childhood some of my mother's closest friends who were regular presences in our lives were addressed as "Aunt/Uncle (name)" despite there being no blood relations between us, though when I grew up the "Uncle/Aunt" title was dropped and we just call them by their names as our adult-to-adult friendship continued. This was not the case on my father's side of the family, where adult friends were always just called by their first names.

Particular mention must be made of the use of the terms "Uncle/Unc" or "Aunt/Auntie" among and toward elder members of the Black community with which one is not related. It is a very delicate issue, and as a white person I don't use it and don't claim any authority to speak on the subject, but I think it's important to learn more about. Some more info can be found starting here and here, but it should be discussed with members of that community if you wish to know more.